For engineering students looking for desktop-class PC for the dorm room, I've spotted a great deal on the hugely expandable powerhouse GMKtec K8 Plus mini PC, currently down to $810 (was $940) at Amazon.
Earning 4.5 stars in our review, we called this an "understated mini PC that delivers far more power than you'd expect for the price." Putting it through its paces, we found it handled demanding tasks with total ease. With its Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU and upgradeable 32GB DDR5 RAM, it's already well-specced for computational tasks. But with the dual USB4 ports, you can also hook up an external graphics card for more intensive engineering projects.
My team's tested and reviewed the best laptops for engineering students, but if you're looking for a heavyweight mobile workstation you don't need to lug across campus, this mini PC is a top alternative at a great price. I've also added some great alternatives below based on our tests.
Top mini PC deal for engineering students
There's not a lot we didn't like about the GMKtec K8 Plus when we tested out this mini PC (read our review here). It's flawless for day-to-day tasks like writing essays in Microsoft Word.
It's a high-performance machine that's way better than you'd expect considering the relatively low cost. During benchmarking, it surpassed every other machine at this price.
But its the upgradeability that really marks out this for engineering students rendering and running CAD programs.
In our final verdict, we noted "Overall, considering the price, the K8 Plus is an exceptional machine with the bonus that the USB4.0 and OCuLink ports enable a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to the upgradability of this machine."
The only caveat here is that the deal price is only available to Prime members - without that, it's $940. You can sign up here for a free 30-day trial.
For more top-performing machines, we've tested the best mini PCs.
Also consider: More mini PCs for engineering students
